Airline slips to Q2 operating loss despite sharp jump in cargo revenues.
Turkish Airlines profits were sharply hit in the second-quarter by a near-doubling in its fuels costs in the wake of the Iran conflict, despite strong revenue gains over the same period.
The Star Alliance swung to an operating loss of $64 million in the second quarter, compared with a profit of $706 million a year ago. The carrier’s net profit was also down at $197 million, from $691 million in 2025.
That came despite a more than 20% jump in revenues to $7.2 billion.
Passenger revenues were up almost 15%, driven by robust demand from Asia and strong pricing across the carrier’s network. The airline also boosted load factor by nearly two points to 84%, though overall passenger numbers were fractionally down at 23.2 million on capacity increased just 1%.
Revenues were also bolstered by a particularly strong air freight performance in the quarter. Cargo revenues jumped 58% to almost $1.3 billion, driven by more than 40% increase in yields.
Speaking on a second-quarter earnings call on 5 August, Turkish Airlines chairman Murat Seker said: “Our passenger revenue was about $600 million higher than we projected before the war. Cargo similarly was up by $600 million. So overall a $1.2 billion revenue increase was realised during the war with the better yields and load factor environment.”
However, the bright revenue picture was more than offset by a near-doubling in fuel costs to $2.8 billion, around $1.3 billion higher than the previous year. That drove a 37% in the carrier’s overall costs. Personnel costs were also up a fifth.
“We had higher than anticipated inflation, which also is related to the war,” Seker adds, while this and the stronger Turkish lira than expected also led to higher local currency costs. He also highlights losses related to lower aircraft utilisation.
“When you combine all these impacts, the [negative] net impact of the war was around $900 million in the first half of the year,” he says.
The post Turkish Airlines’ profits down as fuel costs almost double in second-quarter first appeared on FlightGlobal.